During the middle 50’s and 60’s I hunted a lot with Dale Moore and his son, Don. We had many memorable trips for many years. Dale and I went on mostly deer hunts, since elk hunting was more involved and meant staying overnight or even over several nights. We really did not have the equipment to stay out when the weather gets cold. Sleeping in a tent was not much fun during freezing weather. The cost of getting all the cold weather equipment was more than we could afford during our early working years. This year was around 1961 when we worked up a trip to Rabbit Creek for one day. The deer would be migrating through that area in early October. If we could catch the migration, there would be deer everywhere.
Dale, Harry Marlatt, Don, and I started out on Saturday morning to spend the day at Rabbit Creek which is located north and east of Idaho City, on the North Fork of the Boise River. The hills up there are steep with many Pine and Fir pockets and plenty of tall brush. It was prime deer country. We took two trucks, because four people would be t○○ crowded in just one. It took us around two hours to get to the hunting area, at Rabbit Creek. We wanted to be there shortly after sun up. The weather was clear, and the day started out beautiful, for an October day. It was cold enough that a jacket, felt pretty good. The leaves were all shades of red and yellow. They had not started falling off, yet, which made spotting deer a little tougher. We walked for several hours out around the hills near the top of Rabbit Creek. The deer were there, but we could not push them out of their hiding places. Deer can blend into the colorful brush and unless they move, they can’t be seen. The trucks were moved to the mouth of a long canyon. This looked like a good place to find a herd of deer but it looked really brushy. We proceeded to climb the steep mountain.
Up on the opposite side, I spotted a deer feeding on leaves on the ridge point. It was so far away we could not tell if it was a doe or a buck but it did not make any difference because the season was open for either sex. I judge the deer to be over five hundred yards away, at best. It looked about the size of a field mouse up there. Harry and I were both carrylng Our .30-30s, while Dale and Don had .30-06s. Since I spotted the deer first I was allowed the first shot. I knew the .30-30 would never reach that far, so I used Don’s rifle. The first shot hit somewhere below it. I raised the sight elevation to shoot higher. The second bullet hit about a yard below it with a puff of dust. I knew I could reach it, so I held a little higher for the third shot. The deer dropped but we could not see if it had stayed down or not. Nothing else to do, but go up the hill to look for it. I took Don with me to make a circle up around the hill to try to get on the same level the deer was on. Harry and Dale started up the hill directly at the spot we had last seen the deer. We knew it would take a couple of hours to get up there, at the best. We hoped we could find the deer and that it would not be spoiled by that time.
Away we all went, up was the only way to get there. Don and I would be taking the round about way to get there with the possibility of finding another deer or two in the brush anywhere. About halfway up the mountain a couple of does broke out of some brush in front of us. One went out in front of Don, but he could not get a shot at her. The other ran up a bare hill in front of me. Because we did not have much faith in finding the first deer, I surmised I could safely shoot one of the does, if I could. The deer in front of me was around a hundred yards away when I took a shot at her. She did not fall down but acted a little strange by doubling back at me, then went back around the hill the other direction. Don thought I had missed her completely, but he had not hunted much and did not know when a deer does a sudden change of running that it could be hurt. I told him we had to go look for her to be sure if she was hit or not. I found some blood, where she had been when I shot and I knew she was hit hard. We found her in the next draw, where she had died from the wound. I had hit her almost through the heart. We dressed her out and left her to be picked up later, on our way back down. We were about on the same level as the first deer, when a herd of deer came right at us. Harry and Dale must have spooked them out. I do not know how many there were altogether, but deer were going everywhere around us. We were up to our waists in chaparral brush with game trails weaving through it. Don was standing in one of these trails, when a young buck wanted to use it also. He stopped about twenty feet from Don and just stood there not knowing what to do. Don shot him in the chest, dead center at that distance.
The bullets he was using were bronze points and should have knocked the little buck flat, but he took off down another trail. I caught up with Don still standing in the same spot he had shot from. He was sure he had hit him, but was in shock that it had run off. I got him calmed down enough to show me where the deer was standing when he shot. There was blood splattered everywhere so I knew he would not be far. About twenty yards away, he was dead where he fell. The bullet had exploded on impact inside the chest cavity. Every rib was broken from the force of the blast. There was little pieces of brass and lead everywhere. I had to be real careful cleaning him out because the pieces were so sharp. I did not want to get any cuts on my hands, to get infection from the deer’s blood. After we had him cleaned out, we proceeded up the hill towards where Harry and Dale should be by now. Suddenly, I heard Harry shoot one time. A buck was still alive but had crawled into some tall brush to heal-up. They had walked right to him, by chance. It was a nice two-point buck in great shape.
Now comes the hard part, getting all three deer down to the trucks. Don’s deer wasn’t very far away from us. Harry and Dale would take them down the hill, while Don and I went to get the first deer. We all arrived back at the trucks, about the same time. We had really earned these deer because they were a long ways up the hill. This was Don’s first real hunting trip and he had never shot a deer before. I showed him some tips about the way deer sometimes act when hit. They don not always fall down even when hit with a killing shot. Don will remember this trip because of what he had learned today.
The deer were loaded in the trucks and we headed for home. We would have a lot of work skinning them out so they can be put in bags. They would hang for a few days, before we could cut them into steaks for the winter’s meat. This was a very successful hunt and we enjoyed it.